Keyboard shortcut

When the combination of keys on the keyboard is used for performing any task easily and quickly by pressing 2 or more keys simultaneously, is known as the keyboard shortcut. For instance, pressing the keys Ctrl+Alt+Del will display the Task Manager Utility for application, control and system monitoring. There are numerous keyboard shortcuts, few popular ones are Ctrl+V (paste), Ctrl+Z (undo), Ctrl+C (copy), Ctrl+X (cut) and Ctrl+P (print).

In other words, keyboard shortcut means invoking an OS or a software operation by pressing a series of keyboard keys. Its meaning too varies according to the software manufacturers. For instance, keyboard shortcuts are differentiated from the â€˜hotkeysâ€™ and are known as mnemonics on Windows as well as consisting of a few key combinations which are triggered for carrying the actions or operations. The other names referred to keyboard shortcut is accelerator key or a shortcut.

Though the keyboard shortcuts are not intuitive like the point-and-click mouse actions, but are for the beginners for frequently using the programs to easily and quickly getting to locations faster than using a mouse. They are not case-sensitive and universal. Also, we can use a â€˜caret (^)â€™ for denoting Ctrl.